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Retailer shows off new store concept via eight iPads, never gets them back
Let this be a lesson to all of you business-minded iPad owners out there: showing off your plans to clients using your pricey slate may leave you entirely tablet-less. Guampdn reports such was the case for DFS Galleria, a duty-free luxury retailer bidding for a spot in the Guam International Airport. The company -- along with several others bidding for a spot in the concourse -- showcased its plans for a new shop space to airport representatives, but what set DFS apart was that it decided to use eight iPads to display its proposal rather than use simple paper binders. Rather than returning the tablets to DFS after a decision was made -- for which DFS's proposal didn't make the cut -- the airport is hanging on to them, as per its policy. The airport's guidelines for such proposals state that all documentation from bidders will be kept by the agency's procurement office. So the iPads remain in the care of the airport, locked away in a file cabinet with the rest of the failed proposals. Oh, who are they kidding? They probably spend all day playing Flight Control now.
New iPad to be released in Philippines, Guam on May 29th
While it seems like the new iPad is available everywhere on the planet, there are still locations where it's impossible to find one. Apple has announced that the newest member of the iPad family will find its way to two new locations in the Asia/Pacific market -- the Philippines and Guam -- on May 29, 2012. In the Philippines, the iPad will be available from Apple's online store, at selected resellers, and through Globe Telecom. On Guam, the new iPad will only be available at the sole Apple reseller on the island -- MiTech International. Ironically, one location that still isn't getting the new iPad is mainland China, the country where most of the devices are manufactured. There's some thought that this might be due to the ongoing trademark dispute with Proview over the iPad name. Indonesia also lacks the new device, but the iPad 2 can still be purchased at a number of Apple resellers.
iPhone 4S coming to China, Caribbean islands next week
Apple has announced that the iPhone 4S will be making its way to China and 21 other countries beginning next Friday, January 13th. The smartphone will reportedly launch on China Unicom just before the Chinese New Year, which will be celebrated on Monday, January 23rd. Pricing has not been announced in local currencies, but is listed as $199, $299 and $399 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, respectively. Apple China is clearly the most notable of the bunch, but other countries include Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Cameroon, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Grenada, Guam, Guinea Conakry, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos and Uganda. Jump past the break for the full PR from Apple. Update: Apple got in touch to remind us that Siri will be updated to support Chinese at some point in 2012, along with Japanese, Korean, Italian and Spanish.
The Perfect Ten: The sadistic shopper's list for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
With the holiday shopping season upon us, gamers are hot for great deals and cheap entertainment. As my wife's logic goes, if something is 80% off, you buy it, even if you didn't really want it in the first place. It's the principle of the thing, an automatic 80% dose of smug satisfaction at being a savvy shopper! Not every deal should be pursued, however. Although most video games are playable for years and decades after release, not so with MMOs that have had their service shuttered. It's recently come to my attention that even though these games are completely unplayable -- rendered nothing more than a few cents' worth of a DVD and cardboard packaging -- online retailers haven't kept up with the times and keep these products on the virtual shelves long past their expiration dates. That's not to say you should avoid these products at all cost, because studies show that a large percentage of Massively readers have a sick and twisted sense of humor. What would make a better gift this Christmas than a multi-million-dollar-budget MMO that died a horrible death years before? So don't be the typical gifter who settles for a Blu-ray player or an iPod -- give a package of misery, disillusionment and broken dreams! Hit the jump for 10 items that absolutely belong in your shopping cart if you wish to be feared!
iPhone 4 to launch in Guam on Sept. 24
GTA TeleGuam has announced that the iPhone 4 will be available tomorrow, September 24th, on its mpulse wireless network. Those wanting a head start can reserve one now [Ed. note: this link is now broken, sorry for the inconvenience], though GTA's website does warn, "All phones are available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last." Roland Certeza, GTA's executive vice president of sales, was all enthusiasm this week. "Customer response to iPhone in Guam has been overwhelming," he said, "and we are confident the unique features of iPhone 4 will be received with great excitement by our customers." While we couldn't find pricing or plan information on the GTA website, Certeza did say, "GTA customers will find it easy and affordable to enjoy the great new innovations of iPhone 4 with our range of plans and pricing." If you're in Guam for the launch, let us know! We'd love to see your pictures and hear your story. Good luck and have fun. [Via Macsimum News]
Potential Lt. Governor of Guam is also a hardcore WoW player
Guam is a territory of the United States and has one non-voting member in the U.S. House of Representatives. It's the largest of the Mariana Islands, as well as the most southern island of that grouping. It's also home to a potential future Lieutenant Governor who is also a serious WoW player.Senator Ray Tenorio wrote GamePolitics.com to say that he would be running for Lt. Governor alongside his friend Senator Eddie Baza Calvo, who is the one running for Governor. He also said that he wanted to let people know that gamers are the same folks who "fight and die for democracy, conduct intricate procedures in professional careers, and, Yes, even make policy." And while that sounds like a lot of political season rhetoric, the Lietutenant Governor has already established his gamer credentials.Senator Tenorio's character Paleray is a Dwarf Priest in the Knights of the Mariannas on Silverhand. I'll save you the trouble of looking up whether he qualifies as "skilled" or "nub." Not only is he rocking several Hard Mode Achievements out of Ulduar, but he's an old-school player. Senator Tenorio is a Knight-Lieutenant from the old PvP system. While it wasn't one of the worst "grindy" titles, it certainly shows that the Senator has spent some time around Azeroth. Best wishes to Ray on going from Knight-Lieutenant to Lietuenant Governor.
Verizon brings new bolt-on international data plans to vanilla handsets
Verizon just put the finishing touches on an international data plan rework back in August, but it's now gearing up to offer a pair of roaming options for those without a smartphone / PDA phone. Starting November 16th, VZW customers who own a down-to-Earth dumbphone will be able to pay $19.99 per month for 10MB of international data or $29.99 per month for 20MB; the plan will allow users to access picture / video messaging, Visual Voicemail, mobile IM, BREW downloads or the world wide web. Of course, this cheaper data only works in VZW's list of Preferred Data Coverage countries, which includes just Bermuda, Canada, Israel, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Saipan, Guam and South Korea. Wait, is that GSM we hear laughing in the corner? Oh, it is.
Banned for no reason at all
GuamPDN.com ("Guam's complete source!") has an article up by Duane George, who tells his story of woe: he got banned from the game for suspected Arena win trading, and had to deal with 72 hours without the game. Blizzard, obviously, doesn't provide any information on how many players get banned from the game, and it would be even harder to determine the number of false positives out there like Duane: people who didn't do anything wrong but end up getting banned anyway. We've heard stories here of course, but this is a tough area to investigate by its very nature.For Duane's part, he does say that he plans to stay out of Arenas and stick to battlegrounds, so you'd think that if there were a ton of false positives like him who were turned off from the Arena experience because it wrongly got them in trouble, Arenas wouldn't be nearly as popular as they are. But of course we don't know -- there's no oversight on Blizzard's part (and you could argue that there shouldn't be anyway, since it's their game), not to mention that they've got the right, according to the Terms of Use, to ban anyone at any time for any reason without notice anyway. If they were really going overboard, you'd expect them to be losing customers, and that's not the case yet.Fortunately, this wasn't a permanent ban, and while he did apparently lose some Arena rating and the gear that came with it, his character wasn't too much the worse for wear. A 72-hour ban isn't too big a deal, so Blizzard probably hands those out with much less consideration than a permanent ban anyway. But we're sure Duane isn't the only case out there -- as small as the number may be, there's almost definitely other players like him, banned for doing nothing wrong at all.
MCV brings HD video on-demand to Guam
MCV has clearly studied the gameplan on delivering more HDTV "choices" with limited bandwidth: high definition video on-demand. Coming just a few months after HD broadcasts debuted on the island, HD VOD should be live for Guam residents on channel 999, with "music, movies and sports" available, which ones specifically apparently going to be a surprise. HD movie rentals are $5.99 a pop, GTA, would you like to respond?
MCV Broadband heats up the Guam HDTV wars, launches service Thursday
While GTA TeLeGuam's HDTV service is still "coming soon", competitor MCV Broadband just announced it is it is bringing high definition television broadcasts to the island beginning July 10. The launch channels are ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, Discovery Theater HD, A&E HD and Universal HD; a relatively meager number but considerably more than the zero available previously. All MCV Digital TV customers should have access to the new channels, although it's not mentioned if new equipment might be necessary, although we're sure that would be a small inconvenience to be first with HD.
GTA (Guam, not Liberty City) preps first HDTV service
Yeah we know, with only a couple weeks to go until Grand Theft Auto IV those three letters make heartbeats stutter, but we can't help noting GTA TeLeGuam has officially announced plans to bring HDTV to the island this summer. Part of the company's quadruple play of cell/telephone/TV/internet package, we don't know what channels it's planning to offer or how much it might cost, but we'll keep checking in advance of the always-necessary EngadgetHD "fact finding" vacation mission later this year.
Senator Tenorio? Heals prz!
We've known for a while that there were stars playing World of Warcraft. After all, with 9 million people logging in, there's inevitably going to be the occasional star from somewhere in the world. But reports this week illustrated a player that perhaps many of us were a little surprised at. You see, the gentleman in the picture to the right is Senator Ray Tenorio of Guam. When he's not working towards a brighter future for Guam serving in the Mina Bente Ocho Na Liheslaturan Guahan (the 28th Guam Legislature) as Senator and Majority Leader, he can be seen slinging heals in Karazhan on his Level 70 Dwarf Priest, Paleray. This just further helps to illustrate the point that many researchers are claiming now -- that MMO players know how to excel in team environments and make excellent leaders. Aside from that, I have to admit that having a gamer (and a Priest, at that) running for elected official would get some brownie points from me. Raiding requires people who are willing to work hard with a group, and that's definitely what I want to see in any elected official. Although I have to wonder why the Pacific Daily News didn't use actual screen shots from Paleray as opposed to just snagging random WoW screen shots. I don't know about you, but I'd be curious to see what a Senator uses for a UI. [via Pacific Daily News]
